Sunday, July 15, 2007

BY LESLIE WESTBROOKI had no idea that I was violet with a sprinkling of yellow. All I knew was that I needed to take a big U-turn after the exciting courtroom dramas of the last few weeks (“Violets have a lot of dramatic situations in their lives,” noted my aura reader).Several months ago, a book publicist for psychic Pamala Oslie contacted me about the Santa Barbara resident’s latest tome: “Love Colors: A New Approach to Love, Relationships, and Auras.” She sent me a copy of the book, but quite frankly I was more interested in having my aura read, than reading about auras, so off I went for a session at Ms. Oslie’s lovely Mission Canyon home.

“You’re a violet with a little yellow,” she told me, after I settled down in her comfy living room sofa, “You have the same aura colors as Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Oprah.” Wow.I saw Sandra Bullock at the Film Festival this year, even took a few pictures of her. All I could think was that she needed to brush her bangs out of her eyes. Little did I know we had the same aura colors. How cool is that? And Oprah? Double wow. According to Pam, Oprah apparently has more violet that I do right now. (Not to mention a whole lot more dosh.) By the way, violets, I learned from the book, are usually Democrats. Here, here.Ms. Oslie went on to tell me a lot of things (I will spare you most of the details) including information on travel plans (where I should and should not go as well as good times to travel); that I may not stay based in Santa Barbara forever (which after more than three decades is hard, but not impossible, to imagine being in “nature or international” locale), that I needed to slow down (duh!), that I have other things to write (always!) and that I need to work on myself before (drum roll please…here comes the love colors part) “my guy, a violet with yellow and some tan” would appear on the scene.“You are not centered enough or slowed down enough to create the space for this guy to actually find you,” she said. Was she talking about my messy house? Hard to find me amidst all the papers I’ve been sorting through lately. But there is a clearing in the distant future….I asked her about traveling to Spain again (good, a yellow-violet country she approvingly told me), Hawaii (later, not now) and the Bay Area later this month for a luncheon and ground breaking ceremony for a Frank Gehry designed building at Kathryn Hall Winery in St. Helena (Pam said my aura lit up about that trip. Wouldn’t yours?).All in all, I enjoyed the hour long reading and afterwards, I discovered that taking the simple love colors test in her book (which confirmed my aura colors of violet/yellow with some green and blue, by the way) made more sense, so to speak, and was fun to boot!I saw an aura once, but I didn’t know what it was at the time. I was 17, in my first year of college and went to hear the East Indian philosopher Krishnamurti lecture at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. While listening to him I observed a glow around his entire body that went from violet to white. I told a friend at school the next day about my experience, who informed that me that I’d seen an aura.Perhaps Krisnamurti was such an enlightened being that his aura was visible to many, including me?So what is an aura anyway? It’s the electromagnetic energy field that surrounds each and every person on the planet. It has been photographed by Kirlian photography and some people, like Ms. Oslie, claim to be able to see and read auras. Auras make sense if you’ve ever experienced a person’s energy field – be it scary, hateful, warm or loving.Around the same time as my aura reading, I ran into Kira Slade at the Saturday Farmers Market. Kira told me she does energy massage work. I was emotionally stressed out and needed some pampering big time, so I booked a session and had one of the most amazing, interesting body treatments ever, a combination of fantastic massage mixed with a sprinkling of special flower essences of “trust, action, integration, truth and fulfillment” anointed to my spine, some rattle shaking and hot towel compresses. I left floating. When I mentioned I had my aura read a few days earlier by Pamala, it turned out that Kira and Pam are close friends. Serendipity or a cosmic convergence? You decide.If you want to discover your own Love Colors, Pamala’s book is available though Amazon, but why not support our locally owned bookstores like Paradise Found, the Book Den, Chaucher’s or Tecolote? Speaking of Tecolote, congratulations to Mary Sheldon on purchasing (with her business partners) the delightful Tecolote Bookshop in Montecito’s upper village. You can buy or order any books by Santa Barbara authors and support local business at the same time. I hear Oprah shops at Tecolote…wonder if anyone there saw HER aura?

Pamala Oslie – for more info, to book a love colors aura reading, go to www.auracolors.com. Or phone (805) 687-6604 to schedule an appointment. Listeners can also tune in and call-in to Pam’s weekly radio show every Wednesday from 4:00-5:00 p.m. on AM 1290 Talk Radio.

Kira Slade – To book a session in Santa Barbara, call (805) 687-0343. Kira will be moving to the Santa Ynez Valley in August, so better hurry or you will have to drive over San Marcos Pass…and float back!

NIGHTS ROCKS ON!By the way, don’t miss “Nights!” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art this Thursday, July 19th. If you haven’t bought your ticket already to this popular art party, chances are you won’t get in: the last two packed-to-the-art-festooned-walls events (and they are events) sold out in the first 30 minutes.If you did get your ticket, be certain to arrive early in order to see the new exhibit Made in Santa Barbara: Contemporary Photographs, by 40 S.B. shutterbugs. Additionally, images selected from public submissions of cell phone photos will be projected on multiple screens in one of the Museum’s main galleries (as part of the Collective Submissions installation) for this night only. Don’t know if my cell phone shot made it in or not, but if you see a clown face…For more information on Nights go to www.sbma.net/nights. or purchase tickets at the Museum. American Modernism and Surrealism will be the themes for the August 16 and September 20 “Nights”, the last two of the season.Hope to see you there!